Waking with a Start
by llamaglamasama
Summary: Fuji puts his smile to good use in order to assist Inui with an experiment regarding certain kohai's behavior when woken up abruptly.


Echizen Ryoma, the club rookie, usually spent his lunch hour snoozing under a tree in a deserted corner of the school. Today was no different, so he wasn't surprised when he felt his eyelids becoming heavy. He settled against the tree and took his usual nap, ignoring the world around him.

The sun shone through the branches of the tree, making different patterns of light over his body. A certain ray beamed right into his eye, making it the first he noticed when he woke. Ryoma let out a small groan, stifling a yawn and turned to his left. His eyes widened and he jumped back with a start. "Wh-wh-what are you _doing_!?" He demanded, cursing himself for stuttering.

The person in question just smiled that sickeningly innocent smile of his and remained quiet. They spent a good ten minutes just staring at each other, one with amused innocence behind his eyes, the other brewing with anger and frustration.

"The bell's going to ring." The figure said quietly, his eyes never straying from Ryoma. Echizen jerked with a start, not expecting the sudden break in silence, and pulled himself up.

"Did you need something, Fuji-senpai?" He asked, shifting under the unbreakable gaze.

"Nope," The smiling brunette said calmly, still staring. Ryoma frowned and ran off immediately when the bell rang, his sempai's chuckled following him.

--

Momo was generally good at roughing it through a boring day of school, but having stayed up late the previous night was having its effect on him. It was the last period of the day and his sensei was clueless as to what the class was doing anyway, so he didn't feel guilty when he lay his head on his desk and shut his eyes.

When the weary brown eyes slid open once more, the room was silent around him. Wondering vaguely if he'd been caught or something, he lifted his head just over his arms.

–And immediately jerked back, chair tottering as it attempted to regain balance.

"Fu-fu-fu-," He swallowed, trying to force his wildly beating heart back into his chest and tried again. "Fuji-sempai, is something wrong? What're you doing here?"

The smiling brunette made no response, keeping his head centimeters away from the desk Momo had been sleeping on. Momo sighed, putting a hand over his chest. The organ was still pulsating wildly, but it had stopped attempting to jump up his throat.

He blinked, noticing the tensai's stare focused on him and glanced at the clock. The hour hand pointed past school's end and well into the afternoon. "Shit," He muttered, "I missed practice."

Fuji's grin increased in size. "Yes, actually, you did." Momo groaned, images of buchou's stern face as he demanded laps circulating around his mind. "If you hurry, you might catch up to them. Everyone is headed to Kawamura Sushi." The brunette still kept his eyes centered on Momo as he spoke in a soft, even voice.

Momo gulped. "Um, alright. You coming?" Fuji's grin increased once more and Momo cringed. His sempai nodded and rose from his seat, still looking at Momoshiro. The poor boy stuffed everything in his bag and practically ran from the room, cerulean blue eyes following him all the way.

--

The team walked into Kawamura Sushi after school for a snack when it was decided they should all stay the night together. Ryoma somehow volunteered his house without his consent, so they all made plans to do stay. In the mean time, Kaidou Kaoru sat next to his sempai and occasional doubles partner, Inui Sadaharu, the data maniac. At the moment, he was noting how both Momo and Echizen were avoiding Fuji's gaze. Kaidou was actually kind of worried when Momoshiro didn't even respond to his taunting. That was not normal. What was even odder was the fact that every time the second year's eyes met Fuji-sempai's they'd advert quickly and a light blush would cover his cheeks. Something weird was going on.

Throughout the meal, Kaidou kept an eye on his baka rival and his kohai, worried about their silence, but of course, he'd never admit it. Even when they walked with Echizen to his house, not once did Momoshiro speak up. Kaidou glanced at Inui and frowned in confusion. Momo's obvious deviation in behavior was something the data freak would usually pay close attention to, and yet, he was walking along like he didn't even notice. The frown deepened.

--

They wore the evening away, mainly playing tennis in Echizen's backyard. When they learned of the court's existence, they were ecstatic and Eiji was still hanging off of his Ochibi's neck in appreciation. Eventually, though, night fell and the team was called in for dinner and perhaps to get some rest.

Ryoma kindly set up futons in one of the rooms and all of them prepared to use them, going through their nightly rituals. Finally, they all settled down to sleep, though it didn't escape Kaidou's notice that Echizen and Momo had chosen the futons as far away as possible from Fuji's.

--

It was quiet. That was the first thing that processed in the young Viper's mind the next morning. He didn't think anything of it, but merely tried to hold onto the fleeting ribbons of sleep. After all, everyone else was probably still asleep. With his training schedule, it wasn't unusual for him to be up early anyway.

After a few moments, when sleep had escaped him entirely, his brown eyes flickered open. He blinked. The only thing he could see was deep, swirling pools of blue. He blinked again and now he could see strips of pale skin and brown hair that accompanied the color. Oh. _Oh._

With a jerk, Kaidou Kaoru, the endurance Viper, toppled over and landed flat on his face on the cold, wood floor. He grunted in pain and flipped over, his weary mind trying to figure out what happened.

A smiling figure loomed over him, blue eyes open and intense. Kaidou's eyes went wide as he stared up at his sempai. "Um..." He cleared his throat. "Fuji-sempai, is something wrong?" He asked in a low voice.

The smile widened and Kaidou gulped. "Uh…" He started, backing away slowly.

"Interesting." A low voice said from behind him, causing him to jerk around and stare at his doubles partner.

"I-Inui-sempai! What –"

"100 percent of the time when Fuji wakes someone up, they jerk in surprise, ask if something is wrong, and then stare nervously at him until they can find away out of the situation. Ii, data." He murmured, writing in his notebook at extreme speeds.

"So, Inui, was I helpful to your experiments?" Fuji asked, turning his smiling eyes on him.

Inui held back the sudden shiver that traveled up his spine and forced a smile. "Ah, yes, you've been very helpful." Kaidou blinked.

"Nya, I think Ochibi's reaction was the best!" Kikumaru exclaimed, popping up beside Fuji. "Don't you agree, Fujiko?" He asked innocently.

"Ah." Fuji nodded, finally closing his eyes. "Though Momo's reaction was quite amusing. Hmm, I wonder when he'll finish running those laps Tezuka assigned for missing practice."

"I'm sure it'll be a while." Oishi said, having arrived after his doubles partner. "Tezuka assigned him quite a few, I hope he'll be alright."

Eiji laughed. "Nya, stop worrying, Oishi! It'll be alright. Besides, it was funny when Momo almost fell over cuz of Fujiko!"

"Wait." Kaidou said. "What happened with that Baka and Echizen?"

Fuji smiled. "Ah, the innocence of underclassmen." Eiji giggled.


End file.
